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If the County Council passes the resolution, this will put the question of creating a Fair Elections Fund on the ballot for public vote in the November 2022 Election.

“Throughout this year’s redistricting process, we and residents across Baltimore County called on Council members to follow the law and put the people above politics. Instead, they chose to ignore the law at the expense of free and fair elections. The county’s voting districts don’t belong to politicians, they belong to the people. The people, specifically Black voters, have a right to have a voice in choosing their representatives and should not have to live a decade under an illegal map.”

Baltimore County joins 5 other jurisdictions in Maryland in enacting campaign finance reform. Proponents of the program say it will serve as a counterweight to traditional campaign financing which depends on large and corporate donors.

When the redistricting process is led by politicians, the maps will be drawn to benefit the politicians- and that’s exactly what state legislators have done today.

The competition, designed by the Common Cause Student Action Alliance, invited youth ages 14-28 to raise their voices on any set of nine democracy issues, including access to voting, campaign finance reform, fighting against gerrymandering, and more.

Yesterday, the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission held the final regional hearing in this year’s map drawing cycle before a special session begins to draw congressional district boundaries. The Commission heard public testimony, during which Common Cause Maryland outlined six recommendations for a hybrid redistricting plan that would make the remaining leg of the redistricting special session as transparent, participatory, and inclusive as possible.